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Wednesday • May 13 • 2020
Virtual Reality: Lansing Christian School Teachers Share Challenges, Triumphs of Taking Their Classrooms Online
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Rosalind Bolkema, a Lansing Christian student, is joined by her younger brother Jonas and a few other friends for story time on Facebook Live. This week, PreK-4 teacher Beth Roels read Put Me in the Zoo, by Robert Lopshire. (Photo provided) –––––––––––––––––––––––
BY ASHLEE DE WIT Schools are closed, but on a daily basis teachers are still working to help their students learn what they need to know, deal with their emotions surrounding this new reality, and prepare them for the next academic year. For this article, teachers at Lansing Christian School (LCS) offered a glimpse into their work as educators in a pandemic. Nancy Oostman and Beth Roels teach some of the school’s younger students: 31 four-year-olds. Typically they each have their own classroom, but they have partnered together for online learning. “It was all new, and we had no idea what to expect—we’ve never done anything like this before,” Oostman said. “I can’t say enough about the parents—they’re amazing. I have my own kids at home, so I know what it’s like to try to work from home and help them with their learning—and they [the PreK students] are little, so parents are really involved. It’s been a blessing to get to work with and talk to them more.” The PreK teachers recognize the demands on parents at this uncertain time. “There are parents with multiple children at home—most of them, actually,” Oostman said. “Some are working, some are healthcare workers. We are just keeping that in mind and telling them not to stress over this. If they can’t get it done, that’s ok, but it hasn’t really come up.” Some of the school work sent home is necessary: Lansing Christian is still tracking grades and sending report cards to all students, so there are some things that the students still need to learn. But teachers are also offering Facebook Live meetings and crafts that are optional. They get physical packets every two weeks, which includes both worksheets and craft supplies. Oostman also posts a half-hour “morning meeting” video each day. “They watch the morning meeting, and can work on things with paper and pencil,” Oostman said. “They have the work in front of them, which for four-year-olds is important. We try not to make everyday requirements huge.” On Tuesday and Thursday, Oostman and Roels take turns doing Facebook Live reading. “We also have Zoom meetings with them, which are hysterical,” Oostman said. “It’s so fun to see their faces light up when they see each other.” Like all the classes at LCS, the PreK students have a private Facebook page, where everyone can post pictures of the work they are doing. Of course, pictures and videos aren’t quite the same as being together in person. “The hardest part is not seeing them every day,” Oostman said. “When we heard that we were done for the year, [I had] a good long cry. Going from seeing them five days a week to hearing, ‘Your year is done, and you won’t have this group of kids again,’ has been so tough. They’ll be fine, but it’s been tough. We didn’t get to say a proper goodbye.” Some teachers at LCS face an added challenge in distance learning: foreign language. Lansing Christian School offers a Spanish immersion track, starting with kindergarten. These students, who do not come from Spanish-speaking families and may have no experience
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Isabelle Burney, part of the PreK-4 class, participated in rhyming day by bringing her rings on the swings. (Photo provided) –––––––––––––––––––––––
whatsoever with the language, start school in exclusively Spanish classrooms. The immersive experience is particularly difficult to reproduce online, but that hasn’t stopped teachers from working hard to reach their students. “At first, it was a little hurried; it took a while to get into a rhythm of Zoom meetings, emails, and organizing everything (for take-home packets),” said second-grade Spanish immersion teacher Lety Cruz. “It’s definitely not the same as if we were in class. We had to adapt to new ways of instruction, and we’re doing what we can. One good thing is that this started later in the year; if this was the beginning of the school year, it would be even tougher. Now, I know where all my students are, academically. I know…how I can help them.” Alexa Van Beek, an LCS alum and a student teacher in the first-grade Spanish immersion class, is getting an unusual experience preparing for her career, but she’s taking it in stride. She’s supervised by Ivone Arsenault, one of the school’s most experienced Spanish immersion teachers. They worked together to create a plan for the remainder of the year. “The content has been able to stay the same, but the manner in which we present it varies,” Van Beek said. “Instead of doing everything together for things like math or social studies, I create videos that students can follow along with in their own book at home. We’ve also been able to read together on Zoom, which has been helpful for assessing things like reading fluency and creating that learning environment even when we are apart.” Cruz also creates video lessons, and she uploads them to her web page—every LCS teacher has one. She has Zoom meetings as well; half the class meets on Wednesday, and the other half on Friday, so students get more opportunities to be engaged. She has whole-class, interactive Zoom meetings on Thursday, where the students play games. And she offers one-on-one Zoom meetings to any student who wants one. “Some kids seem to enjoy video lessons more than Zoom, because they can pause and rewind—they can’t rewind me at school!” she laughed. But one student told Cruz that Continued on page 6
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